...or you will be charged for two seats.
it is normal for any high tech endeavor to outsource mundane/janitorial work. Russia and US mastered this non-reuseable type of space flight decades ago. It would not make any sense for NASA to go back and implement the same system now. What would be great is if NASA used the time and money to implement a more advanced and efficient system - Shuttle was a great endeavor and its lessons need to be implemented into the new systems. And by the way, for example, while Russia ferries NASA atrounauts, Russia, or anybody else except NASA, has no ability to [successfully] send an actual Mars probe or create JWST (which impact on science and overall enlightment of the human race would possibly be bigger than even Hubble's one). So stop being pissed off and start writing the code for the mirrors alignment:)
Does it bother you buying "Made in China" stuff?
Space Shuttle Endeavour cost about $1.7 billion, each Space Shuttle flight cost $450 million, $480.1 million has been awarded through the COTS program - and they would pay an astronaut $65k/year. I'm guessing they feel that the rare opportunity to be in space is enough pay for you. ;)
I'd still do it if I qualified for it.
PS: I wish people would stop with the lazy and "funny" comments. It's like wading through crap.
Indeed. I think the submission being a light/fluff piece brings out commenters who otherwise would stay away. That's not a complaint about the submission, however. It's both informative and, on a deep and nerdly level, really cool.
Hence why they don't have to pay astronauts half a million.
I'm applying tonight.
Flying = ISS is in an orbit, very little aerobatic ability
Flight down = Soyuz module pre-programmed to hit target
But NASA will swap a graduate degree in something scientific for having buzzed around pretending to shoot people in a F16/18. Perhaps they could extend this to other parts of their operation? HST staff = extensive peer-reviewed published papers, or experience with a 105mm howitzer.
(But the bennies are out of this world.)
Does the back float count?
Since the ad is for astronaut candidates, the frequent travel is presumably of the boring, Earth-bound type.
